Fokker D.VII

The Fokker D.VII was one of the most feared and respected
fighter planes of World War I. The Allies so respected its
capabilities that it was the only aircraft that the Armistice
specifically required the German Air Force to turn over intact
to Allied air forces. Volunteers at the Foundation are building
a reproduction Fokker D.VII from scratch. It will be powered by
a DeHavilland Gypsy Queen inline engine instead of the original
Mercedes, but other than that is being kept as true as possible
to the original. The aircraft has been finished in this paint
scheme, and lacks only the engine to fly.

Team Fokker

The D.VII is being built presently by Team Fokker. Team
Fokker is comprised of Tom Gaylord, Mike DeBlasis, Wayne Jones
and Bill Broussard. Tom, Mike and Bill are from Houston. Wayne
is from Canyon Lake. Before Team Fokker took over the
construction work had been done by a team of Austin craftsmen
led by Fritz Schuetzeberg.

Fuselage

The fuselage is of welded steel tubing, a construction
technique pioneered by Anthony Fokker. This method of building
aircraft fuselages is lighter, stronger, and safer than the
wood frames used by Fokker's contemporaries. The turtledeck has
been sanded, varnished, and attached to the fuselage. Roger
Freeman installed the landing gear bracing cables, which
noticeably strengthened the gear!

Team Fokker member Tom Gaylord standing next to the
fuselage. The instrument panel, part of the seat and the wooden
turtledeck are visible, as is the fiberglass nosebowl (an
air-cooled Ranger engine will power this airplane, so no
radiator). Most prominent though, is the fuel tank. Mounting
brackets are being fabricated to secure this part in the
fuselage. Note the machine gun mounts and the welded-in forward
cabane struts.

A view of the fuselage taken from above. Roger Freeman's
master welder, Blue, has helped to build the fuel tank using
fittings from an old Luscombe tank. Original Fokker fuel tanks
were 2/3 fuel, 1/3 oil and had separate filler necks and caps.
Our tank is all fuel, but retains the multiple filler openings.
Note the fitting at the forward edge of the tank... the fuel
guage mounts there with the instrument sitting in a binnacle on
top of the fuselage, nestled between the machine guns. In the
interests of safety on a working aircraft ours will have a
firewall (NOT a feature on originals) and the oil tank will be
forward of the firewall.

The fuselage is completely rigged, and the instrument panel
is nearing completion. The black oval with a small hand-crank
is the starter magneto. This was cranked by the pilot to
generate a spark to start the engine while ground crew swung
the propeller . Once the engine was running, its own magnetos
powered the spark plugs to keep it going.

The tailskid and rudder mounting post are in place.

Wings

Although the fuselage is steel, the wings were made of wood. Here
again, though, Fokker was ahead of his contemporaries in that the
wings required much less external bracing than other aircraft
of the day. This required a thicker wing and airfoil, which
made the airplane handle better than its opponents, and also
reduced drag, helping to make the plane faster.

Because the converted Ranger that will power the D.VII is
lighter and less powerful than the Mercedes engine that powered
the original, the wing construction has been modified slightly
from the original. Fokker's practice for wing ribs was to have
solid ribs with only a pair of small holes for the bracing
wires. Our ribs have lightening holes to reduce the overall
weight of the wing.

Together Again

At the last PFM Air Fair, the D.VII was temporarily
assembled to give the members and attendees a taste of what the
plane will look like when it's complete. we look forward to the
day when it takes to the air!